WHITE FAMILY OF ENGLAND

(from Genesis of the White Family by Emma Siggins White - pg. 16)

"The WHITE family, which arrived in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, is, without doubt, of the same lineage as the ancient family of "Whyte" of Ireland, who traces descent from Walter White of Wales who "transplanted himself, along with his brother, into Ireland." Walter White, of South Wales, "who accompanied STRONG BOW in his expedition and conquest of Ireland, and in regard for his courage and allegiance was made a knight by Henry II, 1171. Nicolas Whyte (the descendant of the Strongbowian Knight) married the sister of Thomas Butler, Prior of Jerusalem, and by her was father of Maurice Whyte, the Lancastrain, so called for his having served under three kings of the house of Lancaster." "In the conquest of Ireland, the arrival of fresh forces heralded the coming of RICHARD OF CLARE, EARL OF PEMBROKE AND STRINGULI, a ruined baron who bore the name of Strongbow, and who in defiance of Henry's prohibition landed a force of fifteen hundred men, as Dermot's mercenary, near Waterford. The city was at once stormed, and the united forces of the Earl and King marched to the siege of Dublin. In spite of a relief attempted by the King of Connaught, Dublin was taken by surprise; and the marriage of Earl Richard with Eva, Dermot's daughter, left him on the death of his father-in-law, which followed quickly on these successes, master of his kingdom of Leinster. The new Lord had soon, however, to hurry back to England and appease the jealousy of Henry by the surrender of Dublin to the crown, by doing homage for Leinster as an English Lordship, and by accompanying the King on his voyage to the new dominion which the adventurers had won." (Burke's Landed Gentry; Hist. of the Eng. People, by J.L. Green p. 441)

REgarding Strongbow: -- In 1051 King Diarmait MacMurchada (Murphy) of Leinster had abducted Derbforgaill, wife of King Tigern n <209> Ruairc (O'Rourke) of Breifne (the northern parts of modern Leitrim and Cavan. Although she was restored to Tigern n the next year, the insult was never forgiven and in 1166 O'Rourke allied himself with the new high-king, Toirrdelbach <209> Conchobhair (O'Connor), and drove Diarmait out of his kingdom. Diarmait, taking his daughter A¡fe with him, sailed to Bristol and thence to France to seek aid from Henry. The king responded with a general letter to his liegemen authorizing any who wished to ally themselves with Diarmait to do so. The baron who took up the challenge, and A¡fe's hand in marriage, was a Norman whose grandfather Gerald had married a Welsh princess: he was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow. In 1169, his uncle, Maurice Fitzgerald, helped Diarmait capture Wexford, and in August 1170 Strongbow himself arrived. `It was,' lamented the writer of The Annals of Ulster, `the beginning of the woes of Ireland'. Strongbow and his fellow adventurers, using the advanced Norman military techniques which had brought victory throughout Europe, conquered Leinster and part of Meath, and took Waterford and Dublin.

Ireland as a whole was never conquered. John's successors seldom, if ever, visited the country and no strong Anglo-Norman central authority was established as it had been in England. The earliest Anglo-Norman settlers displaced many existing Irish sub-kings, but Irish `septs' had always been mobile and the sub-kings simply settled in less favourable land rather than submit to the invaders. (A sept was a group of people in the same locality using the same surname; the more formal clan system never developed in Ireland as it did in Scotland.) Many Anglo-Norman families became `hibernized' through intermarriage and fostering with the Irish nobility, and local custom soon taught them to think of themselves in the same terms. Indeed, the chronicler Gerald of Wales complained that they were `more Irish than the Irish'. As the great modern expert on Irish family names, Edward MacLysacht, commented, few now would deny the essential Irishness of families such as the Burkes, the Dillons or the Fitzgeralds; these Anglo-Irish names can be found on the map.

NOTE: Origin of the Surname FitzGerald : (Origin Normandy French) The son of Gerald, Fitz, a son, Gerald (Teutonic), all-surpassing, excellent. This ancient and honorable family is traced from Otho or Other, a Baron in Italy, descended from the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Walter, son of Otho, came into England with William the Conqueror, and afterward settled in Ireland. Maurice FitzGerald assisted Richard Strongbow in the conquest of that kingdom. Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import; Arthur, William, M.A.; New York, NY: Sheldon, Blake & CO., 1857.